She Hits Jackpot -- $4.2 Million Former Floridian Wins Big In Arizona

Jodie Dixson was busy Saturday preparing for a Super Bowl party and forgot to watch when the six winning numbers in the Arizona lottery game ''Pick'' were selected on television.

Later when the numbers were relayed on the 10 p.m. news, she copied them and thought she probably had matched enough of them to earn at least an $800 prize.

Only when the numbers were repeated again at the end of the newscast did the Phoenix woman and her husband, Tom -- both from Winter Park -- realize that their six matching numbers qualified them as winners of a $4.2 million prize.

''I just stood there with my mouth open. Then everyone starting screaming and jumping up and down,'' she recalled Wednesday.

The next day Tom went to the grocery story to buy supplies for the football party and learned they were the sole winners.

''I really don't remember a whole lot of the game,'' she said.

The $4.2 million is the second-largest single award in the Pick game's 16-month history, said Debbie Armstrong of the Arizona state lottery.

After taxes, the prize amounts to a yearly check for $159,842.63. Dixson, 36, will receive it through the year 2005.

Aside from plans to redecorate the house, set up trust funds for her children, take a trip and buy ''a few extravagant gifts,'' Dixson said she has no immediate plans to spend the cash. ''When someone else wins it, you can always think of what you could do with the money.''

She said she promised her children, DeAnne, 15, and Wesley, 9, one special gift each. DeAnne already has started shopping for a horse. Wesley wants a computerized dune buggy toy.

She said Tom, 37, has no plans to quit his job, but he probably will be thinking about the money for a while; he is a financial planner and insurance salesman.

Born in Orlando and raised in Winter Park, she met her husband while both were attending Winter Park High School. They married in 1968 and lived in Maitland before Tom was transferred to the Boston area in 1978. They moved to Phoenix two years later.

Their parents and several of their family members still live in Central Florida. News of the prize thrilled them as well.

''I'm trying to figure out how to get half of it,'' said Herman Dixson Sr. of Longwood.

A semi-retired developer, he helped build the Regency Industrial Park in south Orange County and until last year owned the Metcalf Building in downtown Orlando.

''Hopefully they'll send some this way. Just kidding,'' said Dixson's sister, Christy Cowherd, who works with her father, Tom Donahoe, at the Orlando office of Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada.

Dixson said she has played the Pick lottery game, which involves selecting six numbers between one and 36 from a computer, since the game was started in October 1984.

She typically spends from $2 to $5 per week. Last week she bought $10 worth, five cards for her, five for her husband. ''But it was one of mine that won,'' Dixson said.

She picked some of the numbers because they are the dates of birthdays of family members. Her children picked others.

The prize was announced in a Phoenix press conference Monday. She said reaction has been good, although they did follow the advice of lottery officials and quickly change their telephone number to a new, unlisted number. That hasn't stopped the solicitations, though. Already, their mailbox is filled with offers for real estate and financial planning, Dixson said.

But friends, even one who previously had won $900 when she matched five of the six numbers in the lottery game, have reacted warmly. ''No jealousy,'' she said. ''Just kind words.''